John 8:31-36

³¹ To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³ They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
 ³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Materials:  Dry Erase board with marker.  Divide in half, and write 'true' on one side and 'False' on the other with room for 'tick marks' beneath each word.

Message:  Good Morning!  How are all of you today?  That's good to hear.  Today, we're going to do something a little different.  We're going to take a special kind of test together.  The first thing to know about this test is that we're going to answer either 'true' or 'false--that means 'not true' to some questions.  And, to answer 'true', it has to be true for everyone one of us. And, we're not going to be free to go back to our seats until we've answered 'true' to one questions.  Okay?

Okay!  Here's the first one:  I always  share my toys.  Is that True for all us ?  Yes?  That's terrific that all of you ALWAYS share, but you know I can think of a time when I didn't, so we're going to have to say 'false' to this question. [put a tick mark in the 'false' column]


Number two:  I always keep my room clean.  What do you think?  Is that true? (let the kids answer as they choose--I had one little girl say,  'I do but my sister doesn't).  We'll, you know I left my bed unmade this morning, so I don't always keep my room clean either.  so that's another 'false' (put second tick mark in the 'false' column]

Number three:  I never ever get mad or yell at my brothers or sisters or friends.  'never ever' ?  That's pretty hard isn't it.  I'll bet we've all been mad before.  So, we'll have to put another  mark here under 'false'.

Hmmm.  Look at our board, we have 3 that are not true and 0 that are true.  We're not free to go back to our seats until we get one answer as 'true'--so if it keeps going like this, we might be here a while.  But let's see what is next.


Number four:  I never ever borrow anything from my brothers, sisters or friends without asking first.  Is that true for all of us?  No, I can think of a time when I borrowed a toy without asking, can't you?  So that's another mark under 'false'.


Number five:  I  am always nice to my brothers and sister or friends.  There's that word 'always' again!  Are we 'ALWAYS' nice? If this questions said, 'once in a while' or 'sometimes', we might be alright. But since it says 'always', we'll have to put another  mark under 'false.


Okay, we'll we're not doing so great here.  Let's try another one.  
Number six:  Jesus loves me.  Is that true for everyone here?  Yes? Yes!  It sure is.  Jesus loves each & every one of us.  So, let's make a mark under true. [put a tick mark under 'true'].  Now, watch what happens [as you are talking, erase the tick mark's under 'false.'].  Do you see how the other marks disappeared?


Jesus loves us.  He knows that we are not always going to do the right thing--even when we try very very hard--but he loves us anyway.  So, each day we have a new chance to love each other and the most important 'true' thing we can know is that 'Jesus loves us' and because he loves us, he wants us to keep trying to love each other and he will help us do that.

Let's say a prayer about that.  Repeat after me:
Dear God,
We thank you for sending Jesus to show us the truth of your love.  Thank you for helping us keep trying to show your love to each other.
Amen.
Children--you are now free to go back to your seats.  Thank you.